My Mortgage Free Diary

mpgsheep

August Update
Phoned Direct line and the mortgage is:-£151,735.60

Reg Savers
First Direct = £1800
N+P = £1010
N+P = £760

Total Overpayment Savings = £3570

Mortgage remaining = Mortgage - OP Savings = £148,165.60

Overpayments reduced this month to cover house insurance (saved £150 over last year though!) and for some new furniture (part of earlier plan mentioned).

Peonie

mpgsheep wrote: »

Well it was to be an interim house. However I think we have finally ruled it out. When we move we want that to be that, and then can go full throttle in decorating etc as to what we want exactly, to be living in area we want and have size of house we want. Seeing as we in the right area now, and it is very cheap to live here for now and forseeable future (due to mortgage being 1.5% above base), it seems that moving to an interim place would just cost us a bunch of money + hassle, and that would delay our move to the forever place (as seems like circa 10k swallowed up in stamp duty/solicitors/agents fees etc in moving). What seems to be a sensible plan is to keep overpaying/saving, and see how my new job goes (as potential in a couple of years to be doing a lot better), and then be in a much better position to get the forever house.

I think that's a very sensible plan. We jumped up a couple of rungs (sp?) of the ladder doing just that, and had a lot less stress by not having to move house additional times. I've just checked my figures and it cost us £8,000 plus stamp duty to move house. Instead the £10,000 you are saving could be spent on the house or to knock a couple of years off the mortgage when you move there.

Is your mortgage officially in the 150s now? I am looking forward to getting into the 149s, that's my first big milestone.

mpgsheep

Looks like I missed September update, so going straight into:

October Update
Phoned Direct line and the mortgage is:-£151,112.60

Overpayment Savings
E-ISA - £5,164.14

Total Overpayment Savings = £5,164.14

Mortgage remaining = Mortgage - OP Savings = £146,571.46

Because of changing salary (which don't know what will be), and prefer to keep overpayments in one of the ISAs, will now be adding spare money to ISA as and when we have it. In practice, spare money goes into an easy access savings account, and then if this builds up then will be moved over to the ISA. Reason being, we both found it pretty annoying when we were super overpaying and not having enough liquidity. Once the work we having done over next couple of months is done, and new salary is sorted, will revert back to regular overpayments again.

Peonie

mpgsheep wrote: »

the mortgage is:-£151,112.60

Once the work we having done over next couple of months is done, and new salary is sorted, will revert back to regular overpayments again.

So close to 150k.

What work are you having done?

mpgsheep

The spare room is being plastered and decorated and some bits and pieces done (plugs moved, new radiator and moved, insulating eaves cupboard etc), so that we can move DS (coming upto 2 years old) into there, and then once he has moved out of his room, we are having similar done to his old room. As mentioned previously we decided to have things done "properly" and make it as nice as possible whilst we plan to live there for another 5-10 years.

And yes, it is very close to 150K! might have to find the extra by end of the year to make sure we pass it.

mpgsheep

Guess this is turning into a bi-monthly exercise now...

November Update
Phoned Direct line and the mortgage is:-£150,632.05

Overpayment Savings
E-ISA - £5,164.14

Total Overpayment Savings = £5,164.14

Mortgage remaining = Mortgage - OP Savings = £145,467.91

Decembers mortgage payment is £623 (as usual), meaning that we will be still slightly above £150k on actual mortage amount (ie not with OP savings included). However with savings it will be below £145k, which is nice to end the year on. January outstanding was just under £157k, so am pretty pleased. After my initial blitz on bank accounts and offers and savings, think have now settled into a good level on everything, and into the mindset of it being a marathon and not a sprint!

Peonie

Have you joined the over £100K thread? You will find other marathon runners like me there.

It's a shame you have not officially hit sub £150k; you are so close. Neither have we; our December mortgage payment has gone and we're still above £151k.

I don't think I'm going to join the 2012 MFW thread as I need to concentrate on reaching the rainy day fund target and finishing the kitchen and utility room.

At one point you did ask if I have a diary; it is here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2970780, please stop by and say hi.

mpgsheep

Hi Peonie, i think I will give the 2012 mfw a miss too, as a compromise to not moving sooner (as we would like a house and parking) we will be doing some decorating. The new room for DS is almost ready for decorating (last of the little building jobs should be done today). Then we need to work out how we want to decorate it, paint it and choose a carpet too, and then some furniture. Then its decorating his old room. Then its....neverending!

mpgsheep

Oh forgot to add in my update that I did sign up to the COOP current account, have to move 2 standing orders (used an old HSBC account) and pay in £800 a month for 4 months, and then get £200. Also had an HSBC regular saver mature, which means now have the money necessary to pay off Tesco 0% card at the end of January.

mpgsheep

February Update
Phoned Direct line and the mortgage is:-£149,890.50

Overpayment Savings
E-ISA - £5,164.14

Total Overpayment Savings = £5,164.14

Mortgage remaining = Mortgage - OP Savings = £144,726.36

I have one more month of paying the max into a regular saver (£300), which is earmarked to cover a 0% interest card that ends in July. The £300 a month will then be reassigned to the mortgage savings account, so should start to make some real increases there.